Milk Whey Components

By Health & Medical Last updated Tuesday, April/23/2024

Water

Milk whey has a whitish, watery appearance. This is due to the fact that water is the major component of milk whey. The water acts as a solvent for all the other milk whey components.

Several milk proteins are soluble in water and consequently become components of whey when the insoluble elements are removed. The greater part of whey protein consists of beta-lactoglobulin and alpha-lactalbumin. According to the Ohio State Department of Food Science, approximately 58 percent of whey protein is beta-lactoglobulin and about 13 percent is alpha-lactalbumin. Like all proteins, these whey proteins are composed of smaller organic units called amino acids.

An adventitious component of whey is a protein called bovine serum albumin, which means that it is an albumin protein present in the blood of a cow. Some of this protein makes its way from the blood stream into the cow's milk, and eventually it becomes a component of whey. Milk whey also contains proteins called immunoglobulins. "Immunoglobulin" is another name for the antibodies that protect people and animals from disease. In addition to these complete proteins, milk whey contains some partially decomposed proteins called proteose peptones.

Whey contains a disaccharide called lactose. A disaccharide consists of two simple sugars united into one molecule. Lactose is a union of glucose and galactose, each of which are is a simple compound with a backbone of six carbon atoms, to which various hydrogen and oxygen atoms are joined. The major portion of whey solids consists of lactose--70 percent, according to the Food Science Department of the University of Guelph.

Many vitamins and minerals are removed in the cheese making process, especially the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. However, about 50 percent of the vitamins and minerals remain, according to the Hyfoma website. Especially important are water soluble B vitamins, as well as the minerals calcium and magnesium.